Drill rods used with a horizontal directional drilling machine are commonly stored in containers, commonly called rod boxes. These rod boxes typically store the rods stacked in multiple columns, and are configured for transferring rods out of the bottom of the rod box to a rod loading mechanism which, during a drilling operation, moves the rods from the rod box and into alignment with a drill string. The rod loading mechanism is capable of reversing the direction of transfer, to transfer rods back into the rod box during a pull-back operation. Examples of horizontal directional drilling machines with various types of rod storage and handling mechanisms are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,360,830; 6,332,502; 5,607,280; 5,556,253; 6,474,932; 6,374,928; 7,694,751; 7,562,724; 7,240,742; 6,085,852; 7,600,584; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,374,927, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
For larger drills, that are capable of drilling extended distances, it is not practical to store all the required rods on the machine. Thus, these larger machines typically have the ability to add additional rods to the drill string by removing an empty rod box, and installing a full rod box during a drilling operation, and of reversing that to remove a full rod box, and replace it with an empty box during a pull-back operation.
There is a need for a system to optimize processes related to the handling of the rod boxes.